Monday, March 08, 2010

This was a pleasant coincidence. About 30 km outside of Bangalore I gave a talk on testing the siddhis, as described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, in Patanjali Hall at SVYASA (Swami Vivekananda Yoga College). This is one of the world's leading yoga research institutions, supported by the Indian government.

The lectures I'm giving will be turned into a small book published by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research. I'm not sure yet how that book will be distributed.

This same material (and much more) will be included in another book I'm working on which will follow up on my 2006 book, Entangled Minds. I expect the new book would be published around 2012 or 2013.

As to the siddhis, four or five of the most elementary siddhis have been rigorously tested under controlled conditions, and the evidence indicates that they do exist (this is what parapsychology has been studying for over a century).

More advanced siddhis, like flying, invisibility and levitation, either do not exist at all, or the rare individual who has such abilities would recognize the danger in demonstrating those abilities in public, and so he or she doesn't. Here in India there are certainly many stories of "god men" who do have these powers, but I've yet to see any controlled experiments demonstrating that those claims are true.

I will assume the more dramatic aspects of the Sutras are even slightly more possible than what is shown today. After meditation, which is known to enhance psychic functions, I can envision three possible ways that psychic abilities could be enhanced:

1. Herbs. For example, calamus used to be given to Brahmin children and was said to develop higher forms of perception and thought. Psilocybin or other tryptamine containing substances may work similarly.

2. Geographic/geomagnetic influences. For example, the Himalayan mountains may work in some way as a psychic amplifier. Or something about the area.

3. Genetics. Some may be talented and this could create a boost especially if combined with 1 & 2.

Regarding #1 are there any studies on any substances that corroborate a psi-boosting effect?

Regarding #3 is there any evidence, anectodal or otherwise, that gifted psychics don't have many children?

I'm still baffled that, given that the stories of "god men" go back millenia, that there would not have been at least one family known for their powers who had children. This family have by now had such a selective advantage they would at least make up a small country, or at least a well known province. Yet, nothing of the sort is known.

I understand the speculation we would be eaten by tigers if our minds were busy clairvoyantly watching rocks on Mars in prehistory, but India has had some time to have a small genetic sub-group develop more distinct psychic abilities.

Also in regards to #3 are there any studies regarding certain genetic types and psi?

The Romany, or Gypsies, are reputed to be very psychic.

Have they ever been studied?

Is there any genetic group or trait that correlates with stronger psychic abilities?

Psychoactive substances have been illegal for so long that hardly anything is known from controlled studies about whether they assist psi. There is a bit of evidence from studies in The Netherlands suggesting that psilocybin may be psi-conducive. My guess is that many of the non-ordinary states of awareness are psi-conductive, because the worst possible state to be psychic is the ordinary state.

> 2. Geographic/geomagnetic influences.

Quiet GMF is known to be a correlate of improved psi perception. Geographic correlates are unknown.

> 3. Genetics.

There is some evidence that these abilities run in families, but the nature/nurture confound is present so we don't know if genetics or expectation, or combination of the two, is the key factor.

> ... This family have by now had such a selective advantage they would at least make up a small country, or at least a well known province. Yet, nothing of the sort is known.

A extremely small percentage of the world's population controls the vast majority of its wealth. How those people amassed that wealth is well known in some cases. But in others the wealth is inherited and so massive that trying to unravel their history is impossible. Could some of this advantage be due to psi, perhaps expressed in the form of slightly better intuitions about all sorts of things?

>The Romany, or Gypsies, are reputed to be very psychic. Have they ever been studied?

A extremely small percentage of the world's population controls the vast majority of its wealth. Could some of this advantage be due to psi, perhaps expressed in the form of slightly better intuitions about all sorts of things?

Or the ability to control the minds of others to get a good deal or suppress another person's mental functioning in some way.

Amusingly while waiting for your reply I realized the exact same thing as what you wrote above - the psi families may already exist. It flips the question "if you're psychic why aren't you rich?" on its head. They are! Ironically they may just not know they are.

Still a bit puzzled why they don't breed more, though...

I think you're right in that there is some other factor to success at times. I knew a trader on his journey to becoming a multi-millionaire, which he successfully accomplished, and he was constantly having intuitions and had incredible timing for various things but especially the market. I was familiar with trading to a degree and his decisions simply did not make consistent rational sense; there was some other factor at work.

Interestingly he could not have been less interested in the paranormal or anything fictional or fantasy-like whatsoever! A very real-world focused person.

Thank you for the summary on the other points. The information about psilocybin matches my research.

Quiet EMF is news to me. I see from looking it up that more active EMF correlates with PK.

Is there a way to duplicate EMF through technological means?

Is there a source for finding out what the EMF is for a given time and location? For example, could I check the EMF for myself for tomorrow, like a weather forecast?

My guess is that many of the non-ordinary states of awareness are psi-conductive, because the worst possible state to be psychic is the ordinary state.

And the ordinary state is probably culture dependent (and I suspect strongly so when it comes to psi conductivity). Being able to change one's mind states at will would be nice. It's one of the goals I'm working towards personally.

Well, easy in the sense that an electrical engineer can build a system that can cancel the Earth's GMF and then create whatever new fields you want. The canceling field can be accomplished using a magnetometer, Helmholtz coils, and a suitable amplifier. I am not aware of any commercial source of such equipment.

Dean, you said "Yes, the earth's GMF is very weak and can be mimicked fairly easily with the right equipment."

However, is this really the point? I mean isn't it more likely that the GMF correlates with something else that influences psi. In the modern world, the electromagnetic environment must be incredibly variable - wouldn't it mask any GMF variations?

> isn't it more likely that the GMF correlates with something else that influences psi. In the modern world, the electromagnetic environment must be incredibly variable - wouldn't it mask any GMF variations?

Most of the fluctuations of the GMF are at extremely low frequencies, generally 100 Hz and lower. The only man-made frequencies within that range (that I'm aware of) are signals used to communicate with submarines, and 50 Hz and 60 Hz power line frequencies. The vast proportion of the modern EM environment involves high frequencies, generally far above the kHz region. In any case, the GMF involves magnetic fluctuations, not electromagnetic.